The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-02-19

New York Voice.

tlefield writes the following thrillin /.
description of the work Of q battery
six guns:
Did you ever see battery take pc
sition?
II hasn't the thrill OF n cavalr,
charge. nor the grimness OF a line o
bayonets moving slowly and deter
minedly on but there is peculiar OK
citement about it that makes ole
veterans rise in their saddles ana
cheer.
We have been fighting at the edge o
the woods. Every cartridge-box ha,
been emptied once or more, and one
fourth OF the brigade has melted
away in dead and wounded and miss
ing. Not cheer is heard in the whole
brigade. We know that we are being
driven foot by foot; and that when We
break once more the line will 90 tC
pieces, and the enemy will pou
through the gap.
Here comes help
Down the crowded highway gallops
u battery, withdrawn from some 9th
er position to save ours. The field
fence is scattered while you could
count thirty and the guns rush for
the hill behind us. Six horses to q
tb,o, al arc 10 a,nb ann DVar
dry bitches where n farmer would not
drive a wagon, through clumps OF
bushes, over logs foot thick, every
horse on the gallop, every rider LASH
ing his team and yeling-the sight be
hind US mailing Ne forget the foe ir
front. The guns jump two feet high
as the heavy wheels strike rock or log
but not q horse slackens his pace, not
u cannoneer loses his seat. Six guns,
six caissons, sixty horses, eighty men,
race for the brow OF the hill as il he
who reached it first would be knight.
ed.
A moment ago the battery was Z
confused mob. We look again, and
the six guns are in position, the de
tached horses hurrying away, the am
munition chests open, and along ouI
line runs the command: Give then
one more volley and fall back to sup
port the guns" We have scarcely
obeyed when boom booml opens tho
battery, and Jets of fire jump dowT
and scorch che green trees under whick
we fought and despaired. r...
The shattered old brigade has
chance to breathe for the first time IL
three hours as we form a line ana ii,
down. What grim cool fellows those
cannoneers arel Every man is Il pen,
feet machine. Bullets splash dust il
their faces, but they do not vince
Bullets sing over and around; they dc
not dodge There goes one TO tn,
earth, shot through the head rs h.
sponged his gun. That machinery
loses just one beat, misses inst on'
cog in the wheel, and then work,
away again as before.
Every gun ~ using short-fuse shell
The ground shakes and trembles, the
roar shuts out all sounds from q 81
line three miles long. and he shells 20
shrieking into the swamp TO cut trees
short off, to NOW great caps in tb,
bushes, to hunt out and shatter ant -
mangle men until Their corpses ca
not be recognized as human You
would think tornado was bowling
through the forest, followed by billoHs
of fire, and yet men live th ousn it
aye, press forward to capture the bat
terry. We can hear their shouts az
they form for the rush.
Now the shells are changed 10.
grape anG canister, and guns are free
80 fast that all reports blend into
one mighty roar. The shrek of "A
shell is the wickedest sound in war, bur
nothing makes the flesh crawl lik,
the demonacal singing, pairing
whistling grape.shot, and the ser
pent like hiss OF canister. Mems
legs and heads are torn from then
bodies, and bodies cut in two a
round shot or shell takes two mer
out OF the rank as it crashes through
Grape and canister NOW IA swath anC
pile the dead on top of each other
Through the smoke we see swarm
OF men. lt is not battle.line, but =
mob OF men desperate enough to bath'
their bayonets in the flame OF tn.
guns. The guns leap from tbeground
almost, as they are depressed on th'
foe, and shrieks and screams anc
shouts blend into one awful anc
steady cry. Twenty men out on tbs
battery are down. and the firing is
interrupted. The foe accept 1t as
sign OF wavering and come rushing on
They are not ten feet away when tbs
guns give them last shot That dis
charge hicks living men of their feei